Warner Bros. may cut 1,000 jobs

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Up to 1,000 employees on
the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank could be laid off anytime after
Friday as a result of the Hollywood writers strike.

The studio distributed legally mandated warning notices on
November 12, five days after the Writers Guild of America
walkout began, stating that recipients could be subject to
layoff after 60 days. The notices represent the first concrete
sign that the strike could trigger massive job cuts across
Hollywood.

A Warner Bros. spokeswoman declined to say when or how many
pink slips might eventually fly. She said the notices were
mandated under the U.S. Department of Labor's Worker Adjustment
and Retraining Notifications (WARN) regulations, which are
designed to give employees some advance notice of possible job
eliminations in the event of a strike.

"These WARN notices were sent because, in certain
circumstances, federal and California law can require employers
to give notice of staffing changes," Warners spokeswoman Stacey
Hoppe said. "Due to the ongoing WGA work stoppage, some studio
divisions will have to lay off employees. We regret the impact
this will have on our employees, and we hope to bring them back
to work once the WGA strike ends."

Those receiving WARN notices are employees of Warner Bros.
Studios Facilities, primarily production workers and others
involved in lot maintenance and facility management.

News of the development circulated Tuesday, the 65th day of
the writers strike. It wasn't immediately clear if any other
major studios have issued similar notifications.

But there already have been widespread cost-cutting moves
on most studio lots. At Fox and elsewhere, overtime pay has
been curtailed for many positions, and industryites coast to
coast have been finding their department budgets scrutinized
more thoroughly than usual.

Elsewhere, TV production companies have shed workers as
show after show has run out of scripts and shut down
operations, and now film producers with overall deals on the
various lots are coming under similar scrutiny.

Some TV studios, including Warner Bros. TV, are expected to
send out letters shortly to terminate deals with select
writer-producers. And on the film side, Universal recently
parted ways with Vertigo Entertainment, the company behind the
"Ring" and "Grudge" horror movies, upon the expiration of their
production pact.

In the 1988 WGA strike, almost every studio eventually laid
off scores of workers during the five-month work stoppage.